Stanford sought help in getting out of prison

HOUSTON ? Jailed businessman Allen Stanford on Tuesday asked a second federal judge to help him get released from detention.

In green prison clothes and unshaven, a shackled Stanford made the request to U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas.

?It's been a horrifically bad situation that I've been thrust into,? Stanford told the judge. ?I've been in prison for almost a year now, and it's been next to impossible to prepare for anything.?

Atlas is handling a lawsuit over whether Lloyd's of London underwriters have to pay lawyers for former Stanford executives accused of crimes. She set an August hearing date for the insurance company to prove its contract allows it not to pay.

But she set a June date to try to sort out how $6 million already has been paid by Lloyd's for multiple lawyers defending Stanford in criminal and civil cases. Stanford said he doesn't know what some of these attorneys did on his case.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner, presiding over the government's criminal case accusing Stanford and others of fraud, has ordered Stanford held without bond as a flight risk.

Stanford no longer has a lawyer representing him in the insurance lawsuit. Atlas said that since he's now representing himself, it would be helpful to her if he were under very restrictive house arrest rather than behind bars so he more readily could provide documents to the court and attend hearings.

Judge Atlas said she'll tell Hittner of her preference and ask him to revisit the issue. It is Hittner's decision.

Hittner already has before him a request from Stanford asking that he be released and chronicling his time in prison, including a fight and two surgeries. This is the third such motion Hittner has received on Stanford's behalf. Hittner and appellate courts denied the first two.

Stanford and other executives of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group are accused of operating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme involving certificates of deposit issued through Stanford's bank in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua.

Stanford has denied wrongdoing.

?I can win this case. I didn't run a Ponzi scheme,? he told Atlas on Tuesday. He said he didn't do anything to harm the clients of his firm and yet the receiver appointed by a Dallas judge has taken everything he worked 30 years to build.

Stanford said his current lawyer, Robert Bennett, is the first attorney to give him hope in some time. Stanford said Bennett is aiding him for the right reasons and not for money or notoriety.

An attorney for Lloyd's said the insurance policy is being used up by more than just Stanford and others accused of crimes.

It also covers legal expenses for a number of former employees who have been interviewed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, including four who have been targeted for possible civil charges beyond those the SEC already has filed.